First lady Wu Shu-chen (
Wu also sued Chen Yu-hao for violating the Election and Recall Law (
"Chen Yu-hao has been making false accusations against me in the past few days by saying he had visited me at my home twice and gave me NT$6 million in cash," Wu told a press conference.
"This is an absolute fabrication and he is full of lies. I have never met him on any private occasions," she said.
Wu said she was forced to take legal action against the fugitive since "my silence might be mistaken for a confession" amid negative election campaigning.
"Chen yu-hao left huge debts in Taiwan but claims that his assets are much greater then his debts," Wu said. "If that were true, he should immediately return to Taiwan to deal with his liabilities."
"He said that he has no money and has become a vagrant, so how could he hire bodyguards and take out so many ads in Taiwan's media?" Wu asked.
The tycoon fled Taiwan in 2002 while awaiting trial on corruption charges. In interviews earlier this week in San Francisco, he said he could prove he visited Wu in 1994 and again in 2000 before her husband was elected president.
Wu told reporters yesterday that his description of her bathroom was completely inaccurate.
"A popular local magazine did a feature story on my home in 1998, when Chen Shui-bian was running for the reelection as Taipei mayor," Wu said. "Chen Yu-hao should have read the story before making his lies."
"He said there was no toilet [in the bathroom] but you can see the toilet when you walk in," she said.
Wu's bathroom was specially designed to accommodate her wheelchair. She was paralyzed after being run down in 1985 in what many people believe was a politically motivated attack.
She expressed concern over the increasing negative tone of the campaign, saying that "whenever there is an election, there will be these smear campaigns.
"In the 1998 Taipei mayoral election, opponents said that my husband had secretly visited Macau many times to solicit prostitutes, and in the 2000 presidential election, opponents accused my husband of being involved in a lottery scandal," Wu said. "Those rumors and groundless allegations all proved to be tricks to tarnish him."
Deputy Secretary General to the President Chen Che-nan (
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
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